‘Are we getting out of here any time soon?’ Max’s voice shuddered as her hands jerked the wheel in sharp twists.
‘Any minute now.’
The last of the trees gave way and the Felani lurched into sunlight and an open field. Max pushed harder on the accelerator.
‘How far away is she?’
‘About two kilometres.’ Linden stared at the screen. ‘But she’s stopped moving.’
Max shot Linden a nervous look. ‘What do we do about that?’ She nodded towards a long hedge that spanned the field in the distance.
‘It’s right in the way of where we want to go.’
‘Fine,’ Max said through gritted teeth. ‘Straight ahead it is then.’
The Felani flew over the bumps and furrows of the field. The hedge got closer.
‘Are you sure?’ Linden asked.
‘Quimby says these things are strong,’ Max answered. ‘Let’s test her out.’
Her foot was level with the floor. The Felani gained speed, tearing over the grassy field. It hit a buried stone and lifted into the air.
‘Hold on.’ Max tightened her grip on the steering wheel and closed her eyes as the Felani crashed through the hedge. Branches hit against the car like a crowd of hands playing drums on the roof before they came out the other side.
‘We did it,’ Linden cheered, until he realised their ride had suddenly become smooth again. ‘Uh oh.’
The Felani nosedived through the air briefly before it was engulfed by the shallow water of another pond and stalled. Max put the car into neutral and started the engine. ‘I’m not done yet. Is Veronique still close?’
‘Yep, we’re almost there.’
The Felani’s super-grip wheels easily climbed out of the pond and after another short, rally-driving trip through a smaller forest, Max slowed to a stop behind a large tree, within throwing distance of a small steel-clad hangar.
‘She’s in there,’ Linden said.
‘A plane hangar?’
Linden shook his head. ‘There’s no airstrip.’
‘Is that where he’s going to do his –’
The roof of the hangar seemed to come to life and opened out like two huge mechanical arms. In a matter of seconds a helicopter rose up from its metal insides.
‘Doesn’t look like it,’ Linden answered.
‘Is she onboard?’ Max asked.
Linden nodded.
Max tried to hide the fear in her voice. ‘We’ll wait to see where she lands and use the Time and Space Machine to rescue her.’
The helicopter grew smaller on the horizon. They watched until it disappeared. Now that the car had stopped, Max could no longer ignore the vibration of her palm computer. ‘It’s Steinberger.’
‘Max, I tried to call Linden’s computer, but I couldn’t get through.’
‘Sorry, Steinberger,’ Linden leant into the screen. ‘We’ve been on a bit of a noisy ride.’
‘We feel you may be in danger.’
‘Tell us about it,’ Max mumbled.
‘We’ve discovered that the two Louvre security guards were bribed with an extraordinary amount of money and a small island for each of them. After some extensive investigating, we’ve tracked the bribe to an account in Switzerland in the name of a company owned by Strangways.’
‘Bribed in exchange for the security procedures for the museum?’ Max asked.
‘And Strangways faked his own abduction to make it look like he wasn’t involved in Antoine’s kidnapping.’
‘Do they know where he is?’ Linden asked.
‘No. I’m afraid not.’ Steinberger shook his head.
‘Did you discover this or Tetu?’ Max asked carefully.
‘It was two Spyforce agents. And the professors from your list have told us that Strangways is well known for offering generous amounts of money for finders of ancient artefacts, but in recent years he’s been especially keen on finding a particular book.’
‘The Book of the Dead?’ Max asked.
‘Precisely.’
‘We know where it is.’ Max’s palm computer vibrated in her hand with another message. The top of the screen flashed with a name: Tetu. ‘Veronique’s dad found the book for Strangways, who keeps it in a private museum under his chateau. It has some spells Toby thinks Strangways is going to use in some destructive ritual, but the book alone isn’t enough to make that happen.’
‘He needs an object to power it,’ Linden added. ‘We don’t know what it is, where he’s going to do it or … why he needs Veronique. Toby’s working on it now.’
‘He needs Veronique?’ Steinberger asked.
The computer continued to vibrate with Tetu’s call.
Max paused. ‘We think Strangways has had Veronique kidnapped. We’re on our way to get her now.’
‘Oh dear.’ Steinberger’s face twisted into a worried mess. ‘Do you need anything from us?’
‘Max gave Veronique her Tracer Bug, so we’re going to track her down. If we need help, we’ll call.’
‘I’ll have agents on the ground ready to move as soon as you need them. Good luck.’
‘Could you send some agents to get Toby?’ Max asked. ‘He’s alone at the chateau.’
‘I’ll do it straight away.’ Steinberger paused. ‘Be careful, you two. It seems Strangways has made it his life’s purpose to find this book. Now that he has it, he won’t be easily convinced to give it up.’
‘Thanks, Steinberger.’ Max closed the connection.
‘They’re in Paris.’ Linden watched the screen. ‘Flying over the city.’
‘Tetu’s been trying to call. What do I tell him?’
‘He didn’t know about Veronique. Maybe he’s not involved after all?’ Linden said.
Max activated the message link. ‘Hello, Commandant.’ She could feel the heat of Tetu’s temper flowing into her hands.
‘Where is she?’ he asked quietly.
‘We lost her.’
‘You lost ’er?’
‘We have a Tracer Bug on her, so we know where she’s being taken.’
‘Why aren’t you wiz ’er now?’
Max swallowed. ‘She’s been flown away in a helicopter out of the chateau grounds, but we’re going to …’
‘You are going to do nozing. We will take over from ’ere,’ he spat. ‘You are relieved of your duty.’
‘She’s at the Eiffel Tower,’ Linden said.
Tetu’s eye twitched. ‘Ze tower and surrounding park ’ave been shut today due to a threat.’
‘The helicopter is hovering just beneath the top,’ Linden said, watching his computer. ‘An inflatable chute is opening out. It’s hooked onto the outside railing.’ His face drained as he watched two figures slide down the chute. ‘They’re inside the top level.’
‘What kind of threat?’ Max asked Tetu. ‘From who? When?’
‘Today … a threat to … we don’t know who but we ’ad to …’
‘It’s Strangways,’ Max said. ‘And we can help you –’
‘You will leave zis to me,’ Tetu instructed. ‘Do not come anywhere near ze Eiffel Tower.’ His normally twitching eye hardened into a firm, sneering look. ‘You ’ave done enough damage.’ ‘’Opefully zere is still time to fix up your mess and save ’er.’
His face snapped from the screen.
Max grabbed her pack from the back of the car and held out her hand for the Time and Space Machine. ‘We’re going.’
‘Thought you might say that.’ Linden handed it over.
Outside the car, Max used the virtual search engine to zero in one of the tower’s four iron pillars.
‘Ready?’ But as she was about to grab Linden’s hand to transport them, a text message came though on her computer.
‘It’s from Toby. He’s worked out the spell.’ Linden leant in and they scanned the screen. ‘And how to break it.’
Max texted Toby to forward it to Steinberger and added, ‘Keep listening.’
She pressed the record function on h
er watch so Toby could hear everything that was about to happen. She grabbed Linden’s hand. ‘It’s time we cancelled Strangways’s little magic show.’
She pressed transport and the two spies disappeared.
Max and Linden appeared in a flash of fluorescent light inside one of the four iron pillars of the Eiffel Tower. When the rain of sparks cleared and the two spies were gently lowered to the ground, Max searched again for signs of the Tracer Bug on the Time and Space Machine.
She sighed and looked up through the laced metal archway. A swirling gust of wind buffeted into them as grey, bloated clouds moved in on either side. ‘She had to be at the top, didn’t she?’
Her head began to spin from the curving height of the tower. She looked down and caught hold of the iron frame beside her.
‘I can go by myself if you want,’ Linden said. ‘You can keep watch down here.’
‘I’m fine.’ Max tightened the straps of her pack. ‘How many police do you think are here?’
Linden scoured the grounds. The nearby roads were blocked off with barriers and police cars with flashing lights. Officers were stationed within metres of the tower base and around the edges of the park, keeping out tourists, Parisians and camera crews. ‘Over a hundred.’
‘That’s what I thought.’ Max pulled out the lever on her backpack. ‘We can fly through this middle section to the first floor. Let’s go.’
The blare of sirens pushed Max and Linden further into the shadows of the tower. Max peeked around the metal edge. ‘It’s Tetu. If he goes up, he’ll either blow it or be in real danger. We have to stop him.’
They ran from the pillar to a line of police cars pulling up before the tower.
Tetu emerged from the first car. He held up his hand and the officers around him stopped at attention behind him. With snapping steps and a face chiselled into irritated confusion, he stood, legs astride, solid as the tower, as Max and Linden approached.
‘Strangways has Veronique and he’s going to –’
‘’Ow did you get ’ere zo fast? You were at ze chateau.’
‘It doesn’t matter,’ Max said. ‘Strangways –’
‘Is our business!’ Tetu shouted. ‘I forbade you to be ’ere. I –’
‘Need us,’ Max interrupted. ‘Strangways is about to wreak untold chaos on this city – possibly the world – and unless you let us go up there with you, you won’t know how to stop him.’
Tetu’s eye twitched like a dancing flea. ‘’Ow do you know zis?’
‘Toby worked it out from a spell Strangways is going to use that is written in Egyptian hieroglyphics in his private museum.’
‘Spells?’ Tetu spat. ‘Discovered by ze other boy?’
‘The other spy,’ Max corrected. ‘And he’s done more than you to –’
‘We have to come with you.’ Linden gently took Max’s hand to calm her down. ‘We know how to stop him.’
Tetu winced and rubbed his chin. He glanced at the crowds that were growing at the perimeter of the park. He turned to two of his men behind him. Max’s Descrambler interpreted. ‘No-one is to get in this park or near this tower. You and Marcel, come with me.’
One of the officers spoke into a walkie-talkie and hurried behind Tetu, who marched towards the tower entrance.
‘Do we follow?’ Linden asked.
‘There’s no way he’s going up there without us.’
At the entrance, four officers stood aside and allowed Tetu and his officers through, but blocked Max and Linden.
‘Commandant Tetu, you have to let us up,’ Max pleaded.
Tetu flicked his hand at the guards and the two spies rushed forward, only just squeezing between the closing doors of the elevator.
‘You will not get in my way.’ Tetu spoke without looking at Max and Linden. ‘Zis is my investigation and I will ’andle Strangways. You are only ’ere in case you can be useful.’
The elevator began its climb up the slanted metal pillar of the tower, through its intricate weave of ironwork. Max gasped as the glass panels of the elevator revealed Paris slowly falling away, the growing crowds and tops of trees ruffled by a blustery wind. She looked away and took a deep breath to steady her heart. She slipped one of her arms through the strap of her pack.
Tetu spun round. ‘What are you doing?’
‘Getting a drink from my bag,’ Max answered. ‘Heights make me feel faint.’
‘Stop fidgeting.’ Tetu turned away. ‘Kids,’ he snarled, his eye breaking twitching records.
Max reached into her pack and took out the container marked ‘talcum powder’. She and Linden traded smiles before he took a hanky from his pocket and she lifted the neck of her shirt to cover her mouth and nose.
Max twisted the top of the powder and used both hands to squeeze down firmly so that the elevator swelled with smoke.
Tetu looked up. ‘What ze …’
The guards coughed and spluttered. Tetu turned and glared at Max.
‘What ’ave you –’ Tetu’s question was interrupted by a yawn. ‘Get zem,’ he slurred. The officers tried to lift their arms to grab the two spies, but instead collapsed to the ground in a crumpled pile.
‘You will …’ Tetu pointed at Max before he keeled over and landed like a heavy sack on top of his men.
‘Must have been tired,’ Linden said through his hanky.
He turned to Max, who clung to the railing and had her eyes firmly shut.
The doors opened on the second level of the tower.
Linden grabbed Max’s hand and they stepped over the sleepy passengers. Once outside, Max breathed more easily and double-checked the location of Veronique. ‘She’s still on the top level. Why couldn’t Strangways have chosen a nice place on ground level to take over the world?’
‘This way.’ Linden spied the elevator that would take them higher.
The doors opened and Max held onto the rail tightly as she felt the small box climb the height of the tower. She felt her face heat up and turned away from the windows. She gasped and closed her eyes even more tightly. Linden peeled one of her hands away from the railing and held it tight. ‘It won’t fall. I promise.’
Max felt her heart calm. A little. Until she felt the pulsing of her danger meter against her chest.
‘Can you feel that?’
‘Yep.’
When the elevator stopped, Max leapt out. She turned her back on the towering view of Paris and gasped in huge chunks of air while leaning against a solid wall of steel. Linden rubbed his hand.
‘Sorry,’ Max said. ‘I’m still no good with heights.’
‘It’s okay.’ Linden shook his hand. ‘I’m sure I’ll get some feeling in it again soon. Where do you think Strangways is?’
A muffled shout spilled from a room nearby.
‘I’d say we just found him.’
Max and Linden crept to the room and peeked over a window ledge. Inside, Veronique was firmly tied to a chair, with Fifi roped to the rung beneath, a rag shoved in her mouth. Strangways lorded over them.
Max shook her head. ‘What is he wearing?’
Strangways was dressed in a long white linen gown with pleated sleeves that flared at the elbow and was gathered around the middle of his waist with a gold belt. Around his neck he wore an elaborate gold neckpiece that was more like a breast plate filled with symbols of fish, eyes and beetles made out of coloured gemstones. He wore a black headdress that fell stiffly around his shoulders and was holding a semi-circular ivory wand. He stood beside a folded-out scroll of papyrus sheets.
‘That’s The Book of the Dead from his museum,’ Max said. ‘François must have brought it to him when he kidnapped Veronique.’
Strangways was talking. Veronique looked quietly defiant.
‘Let’s go.’ As Max went to move, a thick rope lassoed through the air and wound around them both.
They turned to see François creeping from the shadows behind them.
‘François, you have to let us go,’ Max pleaded. ‘Stran
gways is about to do something really dangerous and we have to stop him.’
François said nothing as he added another loop of rope and tied it off tightly. He dragged his prisoners through the door.
Strangways spun round with a quicker movement than Max would have expected from a frail man. ‘Ah, we have visitors. I guess it won’t hurt to have a few guests to watch the show, will it, François?’
François held the rope firmly and didn’t answer.
Veronique cried out. ‘Max, Linden. Regi’s about to –’
‘Conduct a water spell.’ Max frowned. ‘Apparently. Or at least try to.’ She directed a smile at Strangways. ‘Toby worked it out. You’re planning to use this old book to raise the level of the River Seine and flood Paris. I don’t mean to be picky, but don’t you think that’s just a little deranged?’
‘Oh, it’s not deranged, my dear. It’s science, just not as we in the modern world understand it.’
‘All right. Let’s say it’s about to flood in Paris,’ Max conceded. ‘Why?’
‘To give the present world a taste of the power of the ancient world, and what better place to do it than from one of the new world’s most cherished monuments.’
‘What will it achieve?’ Linden asked.
‘I’ve spent my whole life searching for the secret to creating heka and now I’ve found it. This modern world, with its fuss and noise and hunger for technology, has lost touch with the true meanings of life and living. The ways of ancient Egypt, one of the most intelligent civilisations to have ever lived, were true and pure. Now it’s all clothes and money and destroying the environment. How advanced can we really call ourselves when, in order to live, we’re destroying the very planet that keeps us alive?’
Max frowned. ‘I agree with you about the environment bit, but how is flooding Paris going to help you re-create a dead civilisation?’
A calmness floated across his face like a quietly approaching storm cloud. ‘It will clean out the filth, install me in a position of power where I can lead the world through its current chaos and into enlightenment.’
‘Right, well, it’s a shame none of that is going to happen. Now that we’re here.’
Strangways laughed. ‘You have been watching too much TV, my dear.’
The French Code Page 13
